Q&A: Facing bias, speaker tells female physicians ‘you’re more capable than you thought’

Key takeaways:

• Women in neurosurgery often face bias.
• Discipline, passion and determination will help young women forge a path in medicine, according to a presenter at the upcoming Women in Medicine Summit.

One of only 219 board-certified female neurosurgeons in the United States, Sheri Dewan, MS, MD, FAANS, recognizes the importance of spreading the word about their contributions in medicine.

Healio spoke with Dewan, incoming chair of neurosciences at Ascension Health and clinical professor at The Chicago Medical School, ahead of her presentation at the Women in Medicine Summit to find out more about the factors which shaped her journey.

Healio: What events, factors or people inspired you to choose a career path in medicine?

Dewan: I had always been interested in neuroscience, even when I was a child. I spent a lot of hours at the library reading books about science and medicine. I had a tragic event; my mother suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm when I was in my 20s and I met a neurosurgeon for the first time. He inspired me to pursue a career in medicine after my mother’s life was saved. That was really the main event that inspired me to choose a career path in medicine.

Healio: What obstacles did you face starting out in the profession, and how did you learn to deal with or overcome them?

Dewan: There’s a lot of bias when it comes to neurosurgeons. I’m an Indian woman. I did not look like a neurosurgeon. I did not act like a neurosurgeon. There was a lot of bias from the ethnicity, the gender, those types of standpoints, but I always had a really big support system whether it was my husband or my family, that always told me I could do whatever I wanted to do. My mother was a huge champion for me in my life, so I never felt “less than” because of my gender or ethnicity.

Healio: What tools gained through either mentorship or experience helped you navigate the challenges inherent in the discipline?

Dewan: I have a very strong support structure which includes my parents, my sister, my husband, very close friends and family I rely on for advice. I have been able to maintain very strong mentors within my field who I’ve relied on through the years for guidance and advice. I call them my “board of directors,” the people I lean on in hard times.

Healio: What benefits or obstacles would you predict the next generation of young women who become health care professionals may encounter as health care evolves?

Dewan: I feel like health care is evolving for women in terms of the ability for acceptance. I do think there is quite a long way to go. One of the key issues comes down to when women doctors become pregnant, there is a divide that happens, may times, departmentally. From my own experience, when I became pregnant in my neurosurgical residency, there were no maternity leave policies. So, I wrote the policy.

Healio: What opportunities do you think may have not been available to you otherwise as a female, as opposed to a male, physician?

Dewan: I do feel like opportunities for the men were given very easily. I had to work extremely hard to be able to get the fellowships, get the jobs and prove myself. Whereas I think the men could easily slide into whatever role they wanted. As a mother of three, I also felt like there were a lot of child-care responsibilities, things that I wanted to do with the kids that sometimes held me back from achieving career goals.

Healio: What advice or counsel would you provide young women who wish to become doctors and leaders in medicine?

Dewan: Know that you are so capable, and you’re more capable than you thought. There are so many facets to our personalities and there’s so much depth to the reasons why we go into medicine.

I would always say you need discipline, you need passion, you need purpose and above all, you need determination.

For more information:

Sheri Dewan, MS, MD, FAANS, speaks three languages (English, Spanish, Hindi) and has donated time performing charitable surgery in Southern India. Her clinical interests include minimally invasive robotic and endoscopic spinal surgery. More biographical information, including that within her book, “Cutting a Path,” can be found at: https://www.drsheridewan.com/home.